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Poster:	ridetheory	Date:	July 18, 2004 02:32:32pm
Forum:	movie_of_the_week	Subject:	"Litte Siberia"

The concessionaires at the 1939 Fair weren't too thrilled with conditions there. Here's more from Meyer Berger, NYT May 6, 1939

"The photographers who have been puttering around Little Siberia, as the Amusement Zone has come to be called, are not the usual candid camera addicts. They were hired by Midway concessionaires to take shots of craters in Midway streets, of mud conditions after rains and of the dark that engulf the concessions after nightfall. The photographs would be used as evidence in court if the concessionaires should bring lawsuits against the Fair Corporation, as in private mutterings they threaten to do."

"Pop Wilson, veteran of a thousand carnivals and outdoor shows, has a deep respect for Mr. Whalen in certain fields, but thinks the Fair president doesn't know too much about Midways. 'Grover's put too much idealism in to this Midway, if you ask me,' was the way Mr. Wilson phrased it. 'He's got the fair pitched too high. Could do with a little less culture -- and things like that.' "